Presiding officer found drunk during polling duty

Nearly 80% voters turned out to exercise their right to franchise in 10 blocks of the district. Except for a clash between a candidate and a polling agent of the SAD in Talwandi Sallan village in Tanda block, voting remained peaceful. Presiding officer of Singhpur Tarkhana village in Dasuya block was replaced, after he was found drunk on duty.

Nearly 80% voters turned out to exercise their right to franchise in 10 blocks of the district. Except for a clash between a candidate and a polling agent of the SAD in Talwandi Sallan village in Tanda block, voting remained peaceful. Presiding officer of Singhpur Tarkhana village in Dasuya block was replaced, after he was found drunk on duty.

In the same village, an imposter was caught casting vote in another person's name. The vote was cancelled by the returning officer. Polling got delayed at many places due to villagers' petty complaints against each other and against respective polling staff.

Polling was delayed in Bilaspur village of block-1 for more than two hours as the election symbol of one of the sarpanch candidates was printed wrong on the ballot paper. Just two votes had been polled when the discrepancy was detected by candidate Gurdev Kaur.

She had been allotted the 'kite' symbol but on the ballot papers, the symbol of 'fan' was printed. The candidate and her supporters created quite a scene, which made the polling staff edgy and nervous. Returning officer arrived at the polling booth and deputed someone to bring computerized copies of the 'kite'. The stickers were pasted on all ballot papers against the name of Gurdev Kaur after which the polling resumed.

Voting was also disrupted at Dada village of the same block when a woman contender raised objection to the deletion of her name from ballot papers. Joginder Kaur claimed that her papers were accepted and an election symbol was allotted but in spite of that her name did not figure on the ballot papers.

When the matter was verified from the returning officer, he said that her papers had been rejected. The candidate and her supporters refused to accept the claim and continued to protest. Senior officers reached the booth and pacified them with the assurance of an inquiry.

HIGHLIGHTS

In Bilaspur village of block-I, elections symbol to a candidate Gurdev Kaur was alloted as kite, but the symbol of fan was printed on ballot papers.

In Dada village, a candidate claimed that her name was missing from the ballot papers, but on verification, her candidature was found to have been rejected.